The series 

Urban Landscape is a type of photography that is usually associated with a cliché natural landscape. However, I was aiming to expand the contradiction of this genre and consider documenting collective memories that then depict certain symbolism, that work as a mirror for the society that reflects and responds with their own life experience to the photograph that they observe. My target was to expand upon certain motifs and themes such as dehumanisation, abandoned, decayed, repetitive patterns; themes of quantity.

The medium of Photography is often repressed, still and lifeless, in contrary to the text, where one word can shift from description to reflection. Photography breaks down the continuity of time it is the subject of the arrested part that cannot lead to the present or future. The apparatus that I shoot with helps me to decode the languages of semiotics that are observed in the recognisable patterns of our everyday life.

Thus, before starting my journey of exploration I have started browsing Urban Landscape genre in the library. Starting looking from Eugene Atget Photographs de Paris, fascinating representation of the bourgeois society, photographs of the deserted Paris, almost as the scenes of the crimes - to Andreas Gursky, who concentrates on repetitive patterns of the consumerist culture of capitalism. Andreas Gursky has been my long time inspiration. His laid back photographs are highly contextual. His style of shooting form the aisle view, places the observer above the situation almost as the Big Brother, allowing us to see patterns of life, the never ending tape of mankind on natures premises, detecting the defaults of human ideologies. Alongside with my browsing research of photo books, History and Theory seminars helped me to understand the concept behind the images. Critical Theory is essential part of my reading list; it helped to see the world in different perspective. Walter Benjamin’s essay of ‘‘The work of Art in The Age of Mechanical Reproduction’’ where he stayed that: ‘’It is no accident that the portrait was the focal point of early photography’’. Mechanical reproduction erases the aura of the images creating the world of simulacra. I wanted to concentrate on symbolism in my images, highlighting used manmade object that tell the story of the particular social group within that environment, aiming to photograph the quantity of our social realism.

Continuing researching the abandoned warehouses and the unseen London, I came across the website called the Derelict London, that navigates alienated locations around London. Further one, I came across The Alperton Car Breakers and 777 Commercial Road, the last sail makers loft in the East End - two locations that I was particularly exited to visit. While searching for the derelict places in urban explores forum worldwide I came across the freelance photographer Daniel Marbaix that photographed abandoned locations worldwide with wide angled lens, after emailing him, he gave me useful tips on trespass and shooting techniques, such as shooting with HDR mode and then using dodge and burn tool to exhilarate certain details.

Although, I have visited the Rut Blees Luxemburg, London Dust exhibition in Museum of London, images of London City and its unpolished reality. She concentrated on documenting the fallout of the financial crisis in 2008. I personally find her work quite allegorical and interesting in colour pallet and toning. She elevated gold colour as a motif through the semiotics to highlight the contrast in social groups. My further research evolved artists such as Edward Burtysnky and particularly his book ‘OIL’ that depicts extreme expressions of the Chinese industrialization. As well as that I have looked at American photographer Lewis Baltz and his lifeless grid format photographs that influenced me to photograph pictures of deconstruction, ruin and rubbish, lost properties. So I have selected my previous Russian contact sheet of ruined industrial buildings, open space, dead landscape of misery. Before sequencing my images I came across photo books of Nick Waplington Patriarch’s Wardrobe and Joel Meyerowitz book Aftermath: 2011 that I echoed to as I could relate to the topic, not only appearance wise but contextually as well.

Primarily restricted topic as Urban Landscape ended up as beneficial experience of my photographic skills and interests. Aiming to photograph themes of dehumanisation in our capitalist society through the use of punctum (Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida). This project allowed me to observe the world in different dimension. My aim was not to represent the pleasant image for the eye, however to depict the social realist world that we leave in, nevertheless erasing the humankind and leaving the objects behind as the inscription.

Bibliography

When researching photographers, William Eggleston’s photographs were what inspired me to concentrate on colour as a fundamental component to my images. Eggleston is renowned for his colour photography. He transforms ordinary urban settings by heightening the atmosphere with his punchy, shrill colours. For me, I found it hard trying to form an idea for this project so I began by searching for colourful settings within the landscape, which later became a common visual theme throughout my images. Similar to Eggleston, I wanted to change the atmosphere in my photographs from ordinary to imaginative and from dull to colourful. In the Autumn and Winter season it is less easy to create naturally colourful photographs unlike in the Spring and Summer so I knew my photographs would benefit from having the saturation improved. 

I based my project in a suburban area of London rather than central London. I chose Raynes Park where my Grandparents live as the main area to focus on. As Raynes Park is residential, I found myself photographing the houses, gardens and driveways belonging to the neighbours who live there. Stephen Shore was a photographer whose work I looked at in the early stages of this project. Following in his footsteps, all signs of human life are absent in my photographs making the neighbourhood look like it has been left alone. However, the subtle features like the front door being open in one of them, and the recently snipped roses in another, give the indication that people are/have been around but were absent at that time. In some ways my work is similar to Sophie Calle’s “Private Games” project. Calle trespassed into the private lives of strangers in various ways while her subjects were unaware. In her project “The Hotel” (1981) Calle worked as a chambermaid and took that as an opportunity to photograph the contents of the guest’s belongings, feeding her curiosity of wanting to know more about that stranger. My work was less intrusive because I photographed personal spaces which were still accessible to the public, however, it it relates to Calle’s work in the sense that I took the opportunity to shoot without the owners knowing. The viewer should be able to sense my curiosities through looking at my photographs. 

My intentions were to create a narrative with this series, opening with the photograph of the bicycle and front door to the left of the frame, and closing with the photograph featuring the Volvo covered in overgrown weeds. It was a project based on the curiosity and interest in the way the residents in Raynes Park live, without having to meet them or go into their homes. I like that in some of the photographs you look at the door and it feels as if someone is going to walk out at that very moment. I also focused on colours as mentioned already, textures and composition. 

Overall I am pleased with the post production outcome on my final photographs. I used a canon 1000D with a standard kit lens, along with a tendency to shoot on relatively dull days when the weather was grey and miserable. This often resulted in the original images looking flat and in need of retouching. I used Photoshop to edit them and went through a similar process on each one. The usual procedure would involve sharpening and doing an edit in quick mask mode to work on individual parts of the photograph, for example, I consistently wanted to darken, sharpen and increase the saturation on the colour within the frame. I also used layer masks to recover detail using the curves tool. 

I have not exactly worked continuously with black and white photography, but through out this project I began to believe, it’s an aspect that can change the image so swiftly. Black and white photography has the aim to capture facial expressions, not just their clothes. Sophie Calle’s collection of images has that distinctive focus. The viewer is not prone to distraction in the images and has the ability to connect with the person photographed. Calle’s work is unusually consistent in regards to the position of the images and the mystery behind the picture. 

Street photography is the most distinctive photography. I believe that all genres of photograph capture a moment but what is special about street photography is the ability to document in the moment, although it’s a still image, the atmosphere that was where and when the image was taken is still vacant in the image. I have upmost admiration for the work by Sophie Calle, there is always a sense of mystery with of her series. The images are positioned so simply but still have a major impact on the presentation. In comparison Robert Frank’s work; during a lecture I was introduced to an image, the people photographed on a bus, which helped pinpoint, my direction of choice. The photographers I researched do have different incorporations in their work, so I decide I would adapt various ideas from the work of Calle’s and Frank’s.  

I began my series of work adapting the mysterious aspect, so I photographed not as a photographer but as an ordinary civilian almost as a spectator. I wanted to attempt photographing spying on other people, through streets, in shops, on forms of transport. The images were located outside a pound shop store, using a 35-50mm camera. I managed to photograph customers outside the store who stopped just before they entered, I stood behind a lamppost, and most of my images had a sense of mystery and how I observed on others. I called this direction of photography, people watching because alongside everyday life, there is that one moment things should stop, just to watch and take others into consideration. In my initial development I had wanted to photograph being caught whilst being a spectator. Something that stuck with me throughout my project is a Henri Cartier-Breeson statement; the photograph doesn’t interest me, I want a minute part of the reality.  My work developed further away from my ideas, I moved on with people watching. I realised working with environment there were various similarities that could be used consistently throughout my images. I focused on the window as tried for a location for my next shoot; I photographed spectating behind the window so I was still on the outside. Through the window reminded me of how we are always being watching in the present day in regards to CCTV Cameras. I began to believe I had become a real life CCTV Camera and had the aim to watch every move through an image. I was completely destroying privacy unknowingly.  As CCTV camera’s are not still images such as what I was producing but include motion so I sat inside the coffee shop and managed to photograph the motion in a still picture. They were photographed as the walked past the coffee shop and again, their privacy was taken. My development work came to a steady finish, as I was photography the rushing of others, I began to photograph commuting, as it is a major aspect of street photography. I located myself on a bus stop and as every bus stopped I quickly photographed the exit of the bus and commuters instant reactions when there was a camera as soon as they left. 

Visual Research

This project gave me a chance to look at analogue photography, something which I previously had no experience in. From attending lectures looking at street photography and the brief for this project, I quickly decided that it would be best to get out and shoot as soon as possible.

After shooting my first two rolls of film and learning how to successfully develop these, I began to understand that whilst many photographic prints under the street photography genre are focused on the element of chance, there are things which can be controlled; composition, exposure, focus. It was then that I decided to look at photographer Emily Jacir. I found her exhibition Europa (shown at the Whitechapel Gallery) a great resource for my project, I found her concept regarding relationships to be something that I would include in my own work. I also looked into works by Manuel Álvarez Bravo, who is perhaps well known for the surrealist quality which resinates in many of his photographs. I found his print La Mechuda, 1955 complimented the work of Emily Jacir in that the tone of this photograph to be very subdued, it is as if the woman depicted is looking back with regret, similar Jacir’s Lydda Airport, 2009.

Throughout my project, I visited exhibitions and artist talks in hopes that they would be able to inspire my project even though street photography is quite unpredictable. I found a talk by Oliver Blöhm most interesting as he works with both digital and analogue photography. Whilst I left the event with thoughts of microwaving my film canisters and burning prints, I decided to leave these experiments for another project as I am not yet experienced enough with analogue photography to be taking such risks.

Production

Being new to analogue photography, this project was an experiment in itself. I decided to use a camera which I wasn’t even sure would operate as i’d bought it just a week before the project started in a charity shop. I decided to theme my project based around the idea of how I had acquired the camera, as without it, I would not have been able to produce the same work. I went shooting in parts of London that are associated with the handling of sterling, Columbia Road flower market, Brick Lane and Walthamstow High St as it is home to 7 charity shops. When shooting I wanted to create a point of focus, but also compose my shots with as many contrasting lines as possible to almost mirror the reflections seen in a pile of coins, to create a sense of something being part of a collection. Over the course of the project I shot 7 rolls of film, with 6 of these being developed successfully I thought that I would have many shots to choose from when selecting which photographs to print. I actually only had around 12 shots which I would have felt confident to hand in as my final prints, and through my time in the dark room I found that they did not all work together as a series as the differenced in contrasts and depth were just too great and it was this which influenced my choice of which prints I would submit. I chose not to include a border on my final prints as markets are crowded, items are seen as being thrown together and not placed and people move around without their own personal space.

Evaluation

Research Summary for the Landscape project

“Taci. Su le soglie                                          “Be silent. At the edge

del bosco non odo                                        of the woods I do not hear

parole che dici                                              the human words you say;

umane; ma odo                                            I hear new words

parole più nuove                                           spoken by droplets and leaves

che parlano gocciole e foglie                        far away.”

lontane.”

-from: La pioggia nel pineto (Rain in the pinewoods), Gabriele d’Annunzio, 1902

Thinking about Landscape photography I made a connection with painting straightaway. There were some specific images fixed in my mind from the beginning: the deserted Italian courts of Giorgio de Chirico, the melancholic street views of Edward Hopper and the idilic scenery of theRomanticism.

I wanted to create a silent and dream-like setting in my pictures, so, at first, I opted for considering both urban and natural landscapes in order to rate which one would have better represented my idea afterwards. It didn’t take me long to figure out that the idea of a deserted urban scene was almost impossible to achieve, especially in London, as a consequence I started to “hunt” woodlands around the city. Furthermore my birthplace is a small town at the foot of the mountains and I used to do long walks into the wood, therefore shooting in these areas made me feel less distant to home.

I have done lots of research about the forest and its symbology. I found a large number of interesting things regarding the subject: art, music, poetry, literature are full of references to the natural world. The common element I have noticed during my studies is the sense of mystery and sublime that surrounded this enchanted location. The ancient civilisations, for example, considered the forest as a natural sanctuary where the single tree (composed by roots, trunk and branches) represented the link between the earth and the sky. With the invention of psychoanalysis, the wood became the corresponding of our unconscious: an arcane place where all the primitive forces which guides us are hidden. This is also the source of inspiration and home of an incredibly vast number of fables and fairy-tale; almost every Grimm brothers’ story is set in the woodland.

Taking in to consideration all these various aspects I have tried to reproduce them in my photographies. I have been looking for a specific atmosphere; I wanted my images to transmit a bit of the magic we can found in the tales.

When I had clear in my mind what I aspired to do I started thinking about how to put into practice. After a while I found myself in front of two different path I could follow: the first one involved tiny artificial lights laying on the trees as a representation of the little spirits which home the forest, the second one was about to find small panes where the nature itself seemed to be composed by unreal elements. I carried on both the possibilities, but at the end, after infinite afterthoughts, I chose the second option. Even though the lights better represented, in a sense, what was my idea, they appeared to be too artificial.

My pictures were inspired by the work of two contemporary photographers, Ellie Davies and Thomas Jackson. I was immediately captured by their style and I recognised in them the type of images I aimed to create. Both these artists outline a nature surrounded by a dreamy atmosphere in which all the elements contribute to build an intriguing story within the picture itself.

To depict the kind of ambient I had in mind, I have included in my photos peculiar foliage comportment and colours combination which emphasises each other.

This project allowed me to discover and visit beautiful places around the city; there are more woodlands just a few miles from London than someone could imagine. More precisely I went to three distinct parks: Ashridge Estate (north), Black Park (west) and Bushy Park (south-west). The fist two, in particular, are often used as set for movies, thanks to their beauty and uniqueness. For each location I have spent almost an entire day wandering around in search of the perfect slice of wood to shoot. This helped me to get to know the area; I was in an amazing place, absorbed by nature, doing my favourite thing (I couldn’t have asked for more!).

This second task gave me the opportunity to revalue the Landscape photography. I prefer portraiture and I have always find landscaping a bit boring, but during my path I have changed my mind. Maybe the picture of a face could be more expressive, nevertheless to photograph a panorama you need to go physically on the site and from these experience you always learn something. Unlike the Street Photography assignment, here I was forced to think about not only the shapes, but also the colours. I have also experimented a diverse approach to photography: I have worked on my images with a computer rather than edit them manually in the dark room. Moreover, the landscape photography is slower, in a sense, it requires longer timing to soot and you need to give more thought on what happens in front of the lens.